Personal Gratifications Research Articles

From Typing to Talking: Unveiling AI’s Role in the Evolution of Voice Assistant Integration in Online Shopping

This study develops a theoretical framework integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) to predict and understand the acceptance of voice shopping intentions, particularly through AI-driven voice assistants. This research delves into the dual aspects of AI voice shopping platforms: the functional attributes outlined by the TAM and personal gratifications highlighted by the UGT, such as enjoyment, performance expectancy, and perceived safety. It uncovers a favorable user attitude towards voice shopping, emphasizing the significant role of performance expectancy and perceived utility on behavioral intentions. Key insights include the critical importance of security and privacy for user trust and the acceptance of new AI technologies, and the necessity of a balanced approach that merges functional, emotional, and security aspects for successful AI integration in daily technology use. Contrary to expectations, this study reveals a weak relationship between social norms and perceived usefulness, suggesting a misalignment with societal expectations. This research enriches the understanding of voice shopping using virtual assistants, offering valuable insights into consumer behavior and AI technology acceptance. It highlights practical implications for AI research, the development of voice-based software, and AI-driven advertising strategies, emphasizing the communication of benefits and emotional resonance in voice-enabled AI assistants for consumer purchases.

Does Firms’ Social Responsibility Counteract Some Critical Effects of Labor Market Flexibility?

<p>The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it will be argued that the flexibility in labour contract duration can be ineffective in increasing productivity, profits and employment when workers test a high state of uncertainty. Second, it will be shown that these effects can be reduced when firms put into effect a system of social responsibility. What emerges is that while flexibility produces unstable collaborative behavioural codes between employers and employees that damage both, the firms’ social responsibility contributes to spread a spirit of shared values and personal gratifications amongst workers that reduce this instability and generate positive economic performances.</p>

Watch the Birdie: The Star Economy, Social Media and the Celebrity Group Selfie

This work will explore some of the broader implications of celebrity group selfies, through the example of Ellen DeGeneres’ star-studded group shot, taken during the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony, Joan Collins’ 2014 Prince’s Trust Award selfie, just days after, and Collins’ subsequent ‘view from the other side’ tweet; exploring notions of authenticity, performance, intimacy, self-promotion, public visibility, identification, imitation, vicarious consumption and audience participation. Engaging with existing work upon celebrity tweeters, Twitter and other online fandom, photographic theory, star studies and, in particular, Bourdieu’s theories surrounding cultural capital, taste formation, and cultural distinctions, this work not only explores some of the reasons behind the frequently negative judgements of celebrity group selfies, but also seeks to identify some of the very real social functions and more personal gratifications, both for celebrity and fan, that the celebrity group selfie, as a communication and a self-promotional tool, may actually satisfy. More specifically, it is this paper’s contention that selfies offer an ostensibly unmediated, accessible and virtually instantaneous means of articulating and disseminating a coherent, identifiable, aspirational (yet bizarrely, also, seemingly ‘ordinary’) and eminently marketable star image, via a popular and up-to-date medium. With celebrity group selfies this is also the case, but here the photographer subject presents an image of themselves to the world, in relation to a specific group of peers (who themselves also function as signifiers and commodities); perpetuating the notion of a pantheon of star ‘gods’ and the myth of a coherent celebrity community; reinforcing the divide between ‘famouses’ and ‘normals’ and participants and observers; prompting an exponential rise in fan/public interest as more stars enter the equation and allowing the celebrity participants within the image to either borrow some of the greater ‘worth’, ‘status’ or cultural capital of other, more eminent, celebrity subjects also pictured or alternatively, lend their superior cultural capital to less successful celebrities within the image. As such, this work seeks to move beyond a hasty dismissal of such images, their subjects, and their audiences and instead, hypothesise a coherent set of reasons why the most-photographed individuals on the planet (not just film stars, but heads of state and religious leaders) might feasibly choose to create, appear in and/or disseminate such images (or, indeed, decline to participate as did Prince Charles in Joan Collins’ group shot) and why the public may find these images of such interest.

Competitive relationships between traditional and contemporary telecommunication services in Taiwan

This study sets out to examine the competitive relationships that exist within the telecommunications market using the niche theory on the personal gratifications and system gratifications dimensions. The findings from the analysis of 363 survey responses indicate that traditional and contemporary telecommunication services offer different specializations to satisfy their consumers. Overall, mobile telecommunication services partially replace wired services, on personal gratifications dimensions in particular. The system gratifications dimensions of the wired telecommunication services facilitate the existence of wired services. New telecommunication services (3G and VoIP) partially replace old telecommunication services (home landline and 2G) in providing greater satisfaction in entertainment. The results also demonstrate that VoIP does not impose competitive displacement effects on home landline, 2G, and 3G services. Limitation and suggestions are discussed.

Uses and Dependency of Entertainment Television Among Mormon Young Adults

The uses-and-dependency model recognizes the influence of both micro- and macroinfluences on decisions to use media; however, few studies have empirically tested the model. This study represents an attempt to test the uses-and-dependency model in the context of the television-use decisions of Mormon young adults. Students attending Brigham Young University (N = 216) completed a survey of how they make the decision to view television. A structural equation model of the results shows that dependency on entertainment television, as measured by a Television Affinity scale, is negatively related to moral authority but positively related to the personal gratifications sought from television by Mormon students. The results also show a strong relationship between television affinity and time spent with television. These results are consistent with predictions made by the uses-and-dependency perspective.

Essay: Rediscovering The Social Determinants Of Health

Essay: Rediscovering The Social Determinants Of Health

The Cultural Challenge to Individualism

The Cultural Challenge to Individualism Hahm Chaibong (bio) Individualism is the quintessential product of modernity. Modern philosophy, political thought, and economic theory all point toward and revolve around the individual. Modern political and economic institutions like liberal democracy and the free-market economy were designed to safeguard and to reward the individual. As Alexis de Tocqueville put it quite matter-of-factly, “individualism is of democratic origin” (II, 98). Yet individualism is also modernity’s most ambiguous achievement. While providing hitherto unimagined opportunities for political freedom, economic prosperity, and self-expression, it has also been responsible for modern man’s isolation, alienation, and loneliness. By unleashing individual creativity, it has fostered the spirit of enterprise and adventure, but it has also encouraged people to become selfish and self-centered, unwilling or unable to contribute to the public good. If individualism is ambiguous, however, then so are the liberal democracy and free-market economy that produce it. Tocqueville himself, the earliest and most famous celebrant of American democracy, was deeply troubled by its individualistic implications. As he put it, individualism “originates as much in deficiencies of mind as in perversity of heart” (II, 98). Indeed, ambivalence—and sometimes outright hostility—toward individualism has often been the basis for resistance to liberal democracy [End Page 127] and the free-market economy and has prevented thoughtful observers from Tocqueville down to present-day communitarians from whole-heartedly embracing them. Is it possible to have liberal democracy and a free-market economy without individualism? With the continuing triumph of these two institutional pillars of the liberal version of modernity, which seems to defy all efforts at resistance, it would seem that the answer is no. In the aftermath of the Cold War, all efforts to articulate alternative visions of democracy and capitalism seem to have been virtually exhausted. Yet even as some have begun to predict the “end of history,” we now seem to be entering a new phase in the longstanding argument over democracy, capitalism, and individualism, as the cultural resources of non-Western civilizations are increasingly being brought to bear on the debate. With the spread of industrialization and democratization to the non-Western parts of the globe, religious and philosophical traditions indigenous to these areas are providing new intellectual and institutional resources for contesting liberal democracy and the free-market economy. And once again, the focus is on individualism. The “Asian values” debate, for example, is sparked by anxieties over the individualistic implications of liberal democracy and the free market. In that sense, it is only the latest phase in a controversy that has been going on for almost two centuries. It is the first time, however, that the debate is being conducted in an intercultural and intercivilizational context. Individualism and Free Institutions Tocqueville sensed that, with the coming of more equal social conditions and the attendant strengthening of the passion for equality, people “will not endure aristocracy.” He warned that “all men and all powers seeking to cope with this irresistible passion will be overthrown and destroyed by it” (II, 97). Yet even though Tocqueville predicted the demise of the aristocratic virtues, it is clear that he preferred them to individualism. Two things about individualism particularly troubled Tocqueville—its threat to traditional family ties and its threat to civil society. For Tocqueville, an aristocracy provides the basis for strong family ties because “a man almost always knows his forefathers and respects them; he thinks he already sees his remote descendants and he loves them.” Thus he “willingly imposes duties on himself towards the former and the latter, and he will frequently sacrifice his personal gratifications to those who went before and to those who will come after him.” Moreover, aristocracy has the effect of “closely binding every man to several of his fellow citizens. As the classes of an aristocratic people are strongly marked and permanent, each of them is regarded by its [End Page 128] own members as a sort of lesser country, more tangible and more cherished than the country at large” (II, 98). In a democracy, on the other hand, family bonds are relaxed: “Those who went before are soon forgotten; of those who will come after...

Factors associated with amount of use and benefits obtained by users of a statewide educational telecomputing network

This study was designed to identify factors that best predicted the amount and perceived benefits of network use. A 70-item electronic mail survey measured five categories of variables: personal attributes, environmental characteristics, perceived media characteristics, usage, and outcomes. It was returned by 66% of a random sample of 300 network users. Respondents were active network users with high levels of teaching tenure, schooling, and computer experience, and convenient access to equipment needed to use the Internet. Outcomes reported for network use mainly centered around professional development activities, whereas personal and instructional outcomes were less frequently reported. Multiple regression equations predicted 28% of amount of use, 46% of variety of uses, 45% of professional benefits, 16% of personal gratifications, and 25% of instructional outcomes. Socially oriented factors appeared repeatedly in these equations. Social integration with a community of users entered all but one of the equations, social presence contributed to the prediction of each type of outcome, and number of contacts regularly reached via the network was associated with both amount and variety of use. These findings suggested that network facilitators should implement strategies to increase interactions among potential and current network users and to enhance perceptions of the systems' social presence.

Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values

Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. Marriage, cohabitational relationships, and related issues were judged on an especially created Value-of-Marriage questionnaire. The findings showed a consistent impact of pornography consumption. Exposure prompted, among other things, greater acceptance of pre- and extramarital sex and greater tolerance of nonexclusive sexual access to intimate partners. It enhanced the belief that male and female promiscuity are natural and that the repression of sexual inclinations poses a health risk. Exposure lowered the evaluation of marriage, making this institution appear less significant and less viable in the future. Exposure also reduced the desire to have children and promoted the acceptance of male dominance and female servitude. With few exceptions, these effects were uniform for male and female respondents as well as for students and nonstudents.

Pornography's Impact on Sexual Satisfaction1

Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. On an especially constructed questionnaire, subjects rated their personal happiness regarding various domains of experience; additionally, they indicated the relative importance of gratifying experiences. Exposure to pornography was without influence on the self‐assessment of happiness and satisfaction outside the sexual realm (e.g., satisfaction deriving from professional accomplishments). In contrast, it strongly impacted self‐assessment of sexual experience. After consumption of pornography, subjects reported less satisfaction with their intimate partners—specifically, with these partners' affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance proper. In addition, subjects assigned increased importance to sex without emotional involvement. These effects were uniform across gender and populations.

Interest Groups and the Canadian Parliament: Activities, Interaction, Legitimacy, and Influence

A partir d'un échantillon de 140 députés fédéraux, l'article veut (1) dégager empiriquement certaines constantes relatives à l'interaction entre les groupes d'intérêt et les membres de la Chambre des Communes et (2) vérifier un aspect de la théorie de George Homans qui pourrait peut-être les expliquer.Fondamentalement, Homans soutient que l'interaction entre groupes, d'abord générée par des activités communes, finit par imposer aux participants un consensus sur certaines valeurs et qui se manifeste au sein d'activités mutuelles répétées et dans le renforcement ultérieur des liens et influence entre eux.Appliquée aux relations entre législateurs et membres des lobbies, ce paradigme a révélé qu'il existe des relations non-linéaires dans lesquelles les députés, toujours via des activités communes, tendent à adopter des attitudes favorables à l'égard de l'action des lobbies mais que ces interactions et attitudes ne renforcent pas dans un sens favorable la perception qu'ils ont de leur influence. Cependant, l'associadon attendue comme favorable entre légitimisation et influence perçue apparaît de fait.Interaction, légitimité et influence perçue de la part des groupes d'intérêt varient de beaucoup d'un parti à l'autre: les libéraux affichent une interaction nettement plus élevée (NDT; ils sont au pouvoir), les conservateurs font montre de plus grande légitimisation alors que le NDP (NDT: parti socialiste) déclarent franchement plus élevée l'influence estimée. Tous les législateurs semblent dépendre fortement de l'information que leur fournit les groupes d'intérêt, leur habilité à mobiliser l'opinion et de leur caractère représentatif.L'utilité fonctionnelle élevée et le haut degré de légitimité attribuée aux groupes d'intérêt par la plupart des députés suggère que le rôle qu'on leur attribue dans le système politique devrait être considérablement revisé.

Homosexuality and American Theatre: A Psychoanalytic Comment

“In dreams begins responsibility.”—W. B. Yeats“The whole concept is thrilling, the realization of a dream. In the few days that we have been working together I have had more fun than I have had in years.”—Elia Kazan (on the Lincoln Center Repertory)Among the wrongs which the current theatre is said to sustain to its detriment, homosexuality is included with an increasing alarm, if not in print so much, then in conversation. If one believes what one hears, then homosexuality inflicts no mere indisposition on the general theatrical enterprise, but rather a grave disability. Homosexuals—the indictment goes—have exploited the theatre's traditionally liberal hospitality toward deviant and errant souls and have become numerous, widespread, and powerful; they discriminate in favor of their own kind, invariably betraying artistic considerations for sexual and social advantages. But most lamentable—the indictment continues—is the fact that even when the homosexual resolves to renounce immediate personal gratifications in the service of theatre itself, his good intentions (unlike yours and mine) go awry; for there is something in the nature of homosexuality itself, some vague though actual corruption of spirit and vision, which imposes certain inevitable limitations on the expressiveness of the homosexual performer, writer, director, or whatever.